The Fox Hill School is a historical one room school house in Danvers, Massachusetts built in 1876. The historical nature of the building provides both a charming appeal and a home-like atmosphere. Unfortunately, this also comes with no extra space for a break room or welcome space in our entrance. With renovations taking place in the mid 2000s, our school now has a 20-child classroom with three teachers on the first floor and a 14-child classroom with two teachers on the second. We are within a few miles of multiples towns including Salem, Peabody, and Beverly to name a few.
The school operates from the hours of 8:00 am and 4:00 pm with a variety of half day and full day options. Because of this flexibility, we have families from both single and dual income homes with a majority choosing our morning and lunch programs. This flexibility in the lunch and afternoon programs allows families to cater to their childcare needs on a daily or weekly basis. Our morning program is multi-aged groups children 2.9-5 years old divided equally based on gender and age which encourages peer role modeling. Our afternoon program separates the children into the older kindergarten readiness in one group with the younger children in the other.
Each classroom is a high-ceiling, colorful open environment with tables and shelves positioned strategically to build learning centers including art, math, science, building, woodworking, reading and dramatic play. There are two toilets connected to each room making it easier to help young students self-regulate their self-help skills. Another important way we foster these self-help skills is making everything that is available to the children easily accessible. All shelves are open with pictures for children to bring to open tables independently and their cubbies are accessible from the classroom so that they are able to collect their own work to bring home.
Our morning program begins with free-play before transitioning to whole group learning, snack, teacher directed activities and recess/ gross motor play. We are a literacy based program which means that our curriculum is supported each week or month by a particular book or author. I personally lead a weekly music class, phonic learning through Lively Letters, and a monthly art class. While it is uncommon that all teachers have the same level of education, myself and the other two lead teachers rotate responsibilities throughout the week with the curriculum.
Parent communication consists of photo documentation on classroom ipads, general weekly update emails to parents and monthly family nights at the local library. We even encourage parents to use a designated email account to inform us about absences or immediate needs which is linked directly to all of the teacher’s school email accounts to help with efficiency. Each month teachers and families gather to celebrate occasions such as science night, Halloween, and read-a-thon to name a few. Along with daily greeting and check-ins we try our best to have an open line of communication throughout the day.
